Woman in Green with a Carnation 1909

Henri Matisse made this painting of a woman in green with a carnation, in oil on canvas. Look at the way Matisse approaches colour and mark making here. The palette is very reductive: green, peach, red, black. The forms are reduced to their bare minimum, and there are clear lines and flat colour. It looks like he’s using really big brushes, loaded with pigment, and applying the paint directly in simple gestures. The dark green background looks like it was applied in broad strokes, maybe with a house painting brush! The way he renders the hands, they’re just blobs of peach and yellow, with a few dark lines to indicate form. This lack of detail actually adds to the painting’s power and allows us to project our own interpretations onto it. Matisse later explored the idea of reduction in his cut-outs. He’s someone who understands that art is a conversation, influenced by what came before and influencing what comes next. It’s about embracing ambiguity and resisting the urge to pin down one single meaning.